Caw
by Degrazzi
Summary: She refused to look at him, but kept her eyes on the bird of death, flying gracefully away from them in all of its black-feathered glory. She wanted to join it. She said nothing.


A devastating darkness hovered over them. Between them. Suffocated them.

They were inches from each other; their faces were within close, well, close enough.

They felt a thousand miles away. Millions. Infinitely far away from each other.

The incessant cawing of a crow in the distance was too loud. It echoed and ached in Clare's ears, it resonated through her head, shaking her entire being with its thunderous caw.

She'd never desired so deeply to murder a living creature.

"You cheated." She said for about the fiftieth time in a half-hour period. Her calm was alarming. Her heart beat as steadily as it should. Her heart beat in the same way that it beat as she slept.

Slow, steady, rhythmic.

Could she possibly be awake, when her body seemed so dissociated?

Her head did not ache with the aftermath of tears, for her were non-existent.

How was this happening, she pondered.

"You cheated."

He stood there, staring at her, staring into her eyes with a wary kind of love, like a child would peer at his abusive mother, or a puppy at her angry owner.

"Yes." He repeated, because she wasn't processing the news, and he didn't blame her.

He promised her forever. He took her virginity. He bought her a promise ring.

They searched for wedding venues.

And he fucked up.

Bad.

"Why?" She asked stoically. It sounded like a normal question, though it was far from average. They were not discussing a simple matter of the day.

No, they were discussing his disgusting betrayal.

They were discussing his night with another woman.

"You had sex with her?" Clare asked again, like she was questioning the color of his shirt, or his day at the office. She was detached.

He was scared.

"No. I didn't let it get that far, I swear." His voice faltered, and his desperation dripped out like vomit and colored his words with an assumed beseeching.

"Okay." She said, finally breaking the controlled eye contact and looking away from his form.

The bird sounded off again.

She wanted to badly to scream and kill that bird.

"Okay?"

"Okay."

She peeled the ring from her finger and readied herself to hand it back to him.

She would not be with a cheater.

But he spent so much money on it, she thought, why should he get it back?

She closed her eyes and squeezed the ring in her palm, almost hoping to indent the shape of the beautiful promise into her palm, so that she'd forever have a piece of it with her.

But alas, the indent faded, as did her ability to hold the damned thing in her grips. It burned her skin.

"Clare, don't give the ring back. We can work through this." Eli cried.

She shook her head at him, like he was an idiot, before she whipped the shiny, 300 dollar gift across the field, into an abundance of weeds.

He gaped at her like she was crazy.

She supposed that his glare was not completely unfounded.

"You didn't have to do that." He spat.

She refused to recoil at his harshness.

"You didn't have to cheat."

Another caw from the crow. It flew overhead, and planted its long feet around the weeds where Clare through the ring.

She stared at it, ignoring Eli's pleading and complaining and begging.

She watched the creature search around, and shook her head in bewilderment.

Moments later, the crow rose up into the sky, and Clare saw a glimmer of light reflecting off of an object in the bird's beak.

"Are you listening to me, Clare?"

"Not remotely, no." She replied, still as stoically as before. She watched the crow's descent into the grey sky, and was certain that the ring remained wedged in its beak.

"Can I please have a second chance? I promise you, Clare, I will never even _look_ at another girl again. You are the _only_ one for me. I was so, so stupid. Please, Clare?"

She refused to look at him, but kept her eyes on the bird of death, flying gracefully away from them in all of its black-feathered glory. It contrasted starkly against the sky, and she wondered if it would drop her ring along the way. She wondered where it was going.

She wanted to join it.

She said nothing.

"Just think about it, okay?" He implored, as he backed away from her a bit. "I'm going to find your ring. I won't leave here until I find it."

She nodded, still watching the little bird as it flew away. When it was out of sight and Eli's promise to her was with it- far away from her, almost in a different world- she offered up a small wave to the death bird, though he had long since left her sight.

"Give it up, Eli." She spoke, with strength in her voice that he hadn't heard before. "It's dead."

Another crow cawed in the distance. Crows know death, they live off of it, she thought.

"It's dead."

**Another randomly dark oneshot. If you don't already know, look up the symbolism behind crows. It helps the story make more sense. Thank you for reading, and please drop a review if you'd like.**


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